How do I network my laserjet printer?

I'm revamping my hardware and, in particular, am wanting to now network my printer rather than running it off a Windows XP machine. The printer's an old HP Laserjet 4M/Plus, so has a choice of interface, including a wired Ethernet 10BaseT, which I now want to use. The intention is to use my Netgear 4-port router to allow sharing of the printer between now two machines, one the WinXP machine and the other a Mac. I've tried deleting the existing printer driver in Printers & Faxes and have attempted to set up a new driver in the WinXP machine which will be of a network type, but I've been unable to make WinXP and the printer intercommunicate. Port 2 on the router is displaying orange, as opposed to green, which I think means that it's connected, at the physical level, at 10M bps or less, rather than 10/100M bps.

Anyone know what exactly I need to do to get WinXP and the printer to connect fully? Do I need to turn on printer sharing in WinXP? NetBIOS, or anything like that? (I'm not wanting to share the printer via the WinXP machine, I'm wanting to merely use the router as an Ethernet switch, ie. have the printer plugged into the hub in the router). Does the Laserjet itself require some manual pre-configuring to Ethernet mode? DHCP is turned on in the router but do I have to reboot (power cycle) the router in order to get the router to assign an IP address to the printer?

Here's one way:

http://uis.georgetown.edu/software/documentation/win...


If you don't have an IP or Port name, perhaps you need to enable some form of network discovery on the XP machine. I had my HP printer setup on ethernet once. The problem I had was if I switched off the printer it caused problems with the printer being seen or not. In the end the answer was to leave it on all the time. As I don't use a printer often, the best setup for me was to use USB.

I would check your printer manual and see if it comes with a default IP, and whether you can change it suit the network/subnet, or perhaps there's a specific network setup routine. You might need to uninstall the printer and carefully read the installation instructions. Some printers prefer no connection until software installed and vice versa.

Thanks. I don't think that 'academic' recommendation is what I need, as I think that what that describes is for a printer connection where the printer remains connected to a host computer. What I'm requiring is merely a shared printer, but not one which is on a print server. Instead, connection will be via the Ethernet hub in the router. So, correctly implemented, what I imagine would happen when you want to print from the WinXP machine or from the Mac is that you'd see the Laserjet in a Printer dialog in the appropriate machine and then you'd print from there. Instead of seeing the printer on, say, the LPT1 port, it'd now be a URL address. By so doing, and for printing purposes, the WinXP machine would probably never be aware of the Mac, and vice versa.

As an aside, the printer has got a JetDirect hardware plug-in module, on which the various types of connection ports are located. One of them's a 10BaseT, which is what I'm endeavouring to use. I've found the original Jetdirect Configuration Guide that came with this Laserjet printer way back in the 90s but methodologies have changed quite a bit in the interim, especially since routers with built-in hubs didn't exist back then, and so that Guide isn't of much help.

Edited by deleted (Sun 20-Mar-11 15:57:59)

http://forums11.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questiona...

Print a Self Test page by pressing buttons on the printer control panel. This will tell you a lot, including if the JetDirect is being detected, if it is already configured, etc.

In order to set the static network settings from the control panel, you need to know beforehand:

1. IP addr to be used;

2. SM (subnet mask)

3. GW (gateway)

If the JetDirect is configured to use DHCP, and there is a DHCP server available, much of the nitty gritty is done for you.

That might be a start.

I was about to say that I've not anticipated needing a separate printer server, since the HP Laserjet I'm using has one built in, I think. That's basically what the JetDirect Interface is about, I believe.

By "control panel", do you mean the configuration panel on the printer itself? This printer never came with an IP address of its own, as far as I'm aware. I could conceive, however, that an IP address could be either dynamically assigned to the printer by the Netgear Internet router (using DHCP, which is enabled at present) or statically by me, in the router's control panel. In that instance, I'd imagine that the Gateway IP address would be that of the router, ie. 192.168.0.1. The printer is, of course, on the LAN, not the WAN (Internet).

Press Online to take the printer offline.

Press Menu until TEST MENU appears in the control panel display.

Press Item until SELF TEST appears in the control panel display.

Press Enter to print a Self-Test page.

Press Online to return the printer online.


The test page printed should show what the IP is and also what is enabled on the print server. These machines support HP's proprietary printing protocol, standard LPR IP network printing and AppleTalk. Between those you will be able to get it printing from both PC and Mac.

Yes, GeeTee, I've been hoping from the outset that LPR IP networking would cater for both the Windows PC and the Mac.

When looking for the IP address in the printer's display panel as you've described, does the TCP/IP connection via the 10BaseT cable have to be in place? I presume it does, which kinda also implies that that connection is OK and working anyway. But what if, for one reason or another, the connection ISN'T working - how can the printer possibly know which IP address to assign to itself?

In reply to a post by meditator:

I don't think that 'academic' recommendation is what I need, as I think that what that describes is for a printer connection where the printer remains connected to a host computer...

It's exactly (with the exception of the shown IP address and drivers) what you need. The printer is NOT locally attached (ensure that the power & Ethernet cables are the only cables attached to the printer).
Before you follow the procedure, ensure that you have set a valid static IP address/subnet mask for your local network on the printer (you may have to RTFM), then follow the procedure, substituting the printer's IP address for the example IP address.

In reply to a post by meditator:

What I'm requiring is merely a shared printer, but not one which is on a print server. Instead, connection will be via the Ethernet hub in the router. So, correctly implemented, what I imagine would happen when you want to print from the WinXP machine or from the Mac is that you'd see the Laserjet in a Printer dialog in the appropriate machine and then you'd print from there.

If correctly implemented, the printer isn't 'shared'. As long as it's powered on, it'll be a standalone device, available to any other device on your network.

In Windows, it'll appear in your Printers list.

In reply to a post by meditator:

...but methodologies have changed quite a bit in the interim, especially since routers with built-in hubs didn't exist back then...

Routers and switches have existed since dinosaurs ruled the Earth. They haven't fundamentally changed their method of operation since then.

Good Luck!

It doesn't matter if the cable is plugged in or not. Those instructions just make the printer churn out a test page, included in which will be the IP address the printer currently has.

The printer may or may not have DHCP enabled - if it is then it will be assigned an IP by your DSL router, if not enabled the printer may well have a default IP address set. If this isn't in your LAN IP range then your PC & Mac will not be able to communicate with it at all.

First step is to get the test page printed and confirm the printer is on an IP in the correct range. If not change it to one that is.

GeeTee, I followed your simple instructions but when I pressed to get the Test Page, no such test page was printed. Nothing happened at all.

Odd.

Do the instructions here result in it spewing out a test page?

http://www.ehow.co.uk/how_7551535_do-hp-4m-plus-netw...

GeeTee, some of those e-How pages are incredibly inaccurate. Needless to say, it didn't work - no response.

Despite that, I've managed to find an MIO menu on the printer. However, the only item in it is "CFG NETWORK = NO/YES". There's no DHCP setting in this printer.

If I were to set the above-mentioned setting to YES, I'm not sure where to go from there. It might be that the printer will then be automatically assigned an IP address in the correct range. I thought I read somewhere that, with the Jetdirect hardware module, this printer automatically senses the type of connection.

Test pages are available from this printer, but not in the contexts so far suggested, it seems. I've hitherto used this printer on a parallel interface, attached to the WinXP machine and when first installing its LPT1 driver from Windows, Windows offers to print a test page.

Can you give the exact model number of the printer? There might be a couple of variations.

It might be worth locating an older version of the JetAdmin software and running it on the PC. If I remember correctly that used ARP to locate even an unconfigured JetDirect card over the network and allows configuration of it.

Change to YES and a whole new menu will appear.

I stated at the very beginning of this topic that the model of printer was the HP Laserjet 4M/Plus. It's a model that could (and hopefully still can) accommodate a variety of connection interfaces. Do appreciate that Series 4 printers from HP are nothing like Series 4000. The 4 Series are different, earlier beasts.

I've managed to force a test page from "MIO". But it doesn't really help much. It just states that the LAN environment is Ethernet multi-protocol, that the I/O card is ready, and that the IP address is 0.0.0.0.

I bought the printer in 1994. I believe it came with several sets of floppies and, for networking, you used those floppies to install appropriate software depending on whether you wished to operate via Windows Workgroup, Windows NT, Novell LAN, Sun, Unix, etc. I've long since lost those floppies, though. I think they were, in part, for running under Windows 3.1 and under DOS. But this model of printer went on to be used in professional and business circles, in workgroup setups, in the wider world for many more years. I've managed to keep mine going for the last 16 years or so, but have never used it in networked mode hitherto. The trouble is that, in that time, implementation methods for home networking have changed. So, basically what I'm needing is some sort of walkthrough wizard. I feel sure that such a wizard would have been produced for networkable printers like these in the late 90s and even up until just a few years ago. And looking around the HP website, I've not found anything concerning JetDirect that I could use.

Sometimes the semantics can get in the way, so just let me define the setup I'm after. It's one where a separate printer server will not be required. The printer is neither attached directly to the WinXP PC nor the Mac, instead it's attached to the router's hub. So, printing is to be performed via that hub, from either the PC or the Mac. In that context, the printer will be shared. However, the impression I get is that Microsoft's definition of 'shared' is something different. Anyways, the printer will somehow need to be assigned an address such as 192.168.0.3 or 192.168.0.4 (since 192.168.0.1 is that of the router itself, and 192.168.0.2 is the existing PC. The Mac isn't involved yet, but will be in due course). Currently, the router and PC are set up for DHCP, so the previously-mentioned addresses stem from the DHCP allocation.

No, it doesn't.

Meanwhile, I've managed to find an "HP Install Network Printer Wizard" at the HP website. It's here:

http://h20338.www2.hp.com/Hpsub/cache/344391-0-0-225...

The ReadMe file on the neighbouring webpage says that it supports both Windows and Mac and it's for any JetDirect-connected device such as HP Laserjet. It's currently v8.1, dated 13th Oct 2010.

Is this piece of software familiar to anyone here?

Haven't tried running it yet but all previous attempts to get things working, using all your various suggestions ("you" being the various contributors here) so far, have resulted in a trial file being queued but never reaching the printer. Perhaps I need to reconfigure the router to stop DHCP and to use static addresses all round?

Edited by deleted (Mon 21-Mar-11 00:47:59)

You don't need to disable DHCP on the router, you just need to find the menu option on the printer that allows you to enter the IP address and subnet mask you wish it to have.

Then you add the printer to your XP machine by selecting the relevant printer driver and in the Port section set it to print to a "Standard TCP/IP Port Monitor". In the configuration options for that port (found in the Properties of the printer on the PC) you enter the IP address of the printer and select the LPR radio dot button, hit OK and you are good to go. IF that still fails to communicate the print job to the printer, go back to the port configuration options on the printer driver on the PC and try setting it to RAW instead of LPR and in the Raw Settings - Port Number field enter 9100 (the standard Raw IP print port btw.).

There really is no more to it than that:
a. Find menu entry on printer to enter IP and Subnet
b. Setup print driver to print to Standard TCP/IP Port (as above)
c. Print something

Unless someone happens to have the exact same printer in front of them to step through the menus line by line, instructions can't really be more specific than that. This is one of those tasks that can be so frustrating over a forum - in front of the printer and PC I've no doubt any one of the contributors to this thread would have that printer printing over IP in a few minutes

I fully appreciate what the HP LJ4 is. I installed hundreds of the things to print over IP in a former job with a company that supplied them. That's over a decade ago now, so understandably I don't recall every menu option.

You should dispell all thoughts of Microsoft printer sharing from your mind, it is not used in the setup you are doing here. On the Ports tab of the Properties of the printer driver in the Printer and Faxes folder on your XP machine you will use the Add Port... button to add a "Standard TCP/IP Port" entering the ip address of the printer in the dialogue box that appears. But before doing anything at all on the PC you need to find the menu option on the printer itself that allows you to enter the IP address and subnet mask you wish it to have.

Would Part B of http://www.perpetualpc.net/jetdirectconfig.html be of help?

Generally, the HP printers are a bit opaque in how the setup is done.

You have to change a couple of the answers shown, eg,

Config Network = No, Change to Yes.

Config TCP\IP = No, Change to Yes.

From there, you get choices to configure the

IP
IP Address of the printer.

GW
Gateway Address of the network. (your router's IP address)

SM
Subnet Mask. Almost always 255.255.255.0 in a home network.


I would,

Plug the printer into the LAN.
Set the printer to a fixed IP, SM and GW.

-Can the PCs now Ping the printer's IP? If so, joy.

Install the printer driver. Pretend it's on LPT1 for now. (just the std. Windows one, ignore the floppies)
Add a new Printer Port.
A "Standard TCP\IP Port", and when asked for the IP, use the one you gave the printer.
Change the printer from LPT1 to the port you just created.
Done.

In reply to a post by meditator:

I'm revamping my hardware and, in particular, am wanting to now network my printer rather than running it off a Windows XP machine. The printer's an old HP Laserjet 4M/Plus, so has a choice of interface, including a wired Ethernet 10BaseT, which I now want to use. The intention is to use my Netgear 4-port router to allow sharing of the printer between now two machines, one the WinXP machine and the other a Mac.

Fine, all good plan.

In reply to a post by meditator:

I've tried deleting the existing printer driver in Printers & Faxes and have attempted to set up a new driver in the WinXP machine which will be of a network type, but I've been unable to make WinXP and the printer intercommunicate. Port 2 on the router is displaying orange, as opposed to green, which I think means that it's connected, at the physical level, at 10M bps or less, rather than 10/100M bps.

You don't need to change the driver, just add a new TCPIP printer port, and tell the printer to use that.

In reply to a post by meditator:

Do I need to turn on printer sharing in WinXP? NetBIOS, or anything like that?

No

In reply to a post by meditator:

Does the Laserjet itself require some manual pre-configuring to Ethernet mode?

Yes.

In reply to a post by meditator:

DHCP is turned on in the router but do I have to reboot (power cycle) the router in order to get the router to assign an IP address to the printer?

I would personally avoid dhcp.

This looks about right BUT YOU MAY HAVE TO ADAPT SLIGHTLY TO SUIT YOUR PARTICULAR SETUP.

http://www.perpetualpc.net/jetdirectconfig.html

It's actually not that bad once you figure out how to do it.

Hi,

Info taken from HP website

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Doc...


HP LaserJet 4, 4 Plus, 4V, 4Si, and 5 series and HP Color LaserJet printers

To configure TCP/IP parameters from the control panel, use the following instructions:
Press MENU, repeatedly, until one of the following messages appears on the control panel:
HP LaserJet printer type Control panel message
HP LaserJet 4 and 4m printers: AUX IO MENU
HP LaserJet 4 Plus, 4m Plus, 4v, 4mv: MIO MENU
HP LaserJet 5/5n/5m and the original Color LaserJet: HP MIO MENU
HP LaserJet 4Si/4Si MX: MIO MENU 1 or MIO MENU 2
Press ITEM . CFG NETWORK=NO* will appear.
Press the PLUS button once. CFG NETWORK=YES* will appear.
Press ENTER or SELECT .
Press ITEM repeatedly until CFG TCP/IP=NO* appears.
Press the PLUS button. CFG TCP/IP=YES* will appear.
Press ENTER or SELECT .
Press ITEM until BOOTP=YES* appears.
Press the PLUS button. BOOTP=NO will appear.
When using BootP or DHCP, keep the setting BOOTP=YES* .
The BootP or DHCP server will configure the TCP/IP parameters on the HP Jetdirect.
No other TCP/IP configuring is necessary.
Press ENTER or SELECT .
Press ITEM . IP BYTE 1 = (value) will appear.
Press the PLUS button until the value of the first byte of the IP address appears on the control-panel display. By pressing SHIFT and the PLUS button, the value will decrease.
Press ENTER or SELECT .
Press ITEM to continue. Repeat Steps 11-13 to configure the remaining bytes of the IP address.
Repeat Steps 11-13 to configure the subnet mask bytes (SM BYTE 1=), syslog server IP address (LG BYTE 1=), default gateway (GW BYTE 1=), and timeout (TIMEOUT=).
Press ONLINE . Print a self-test page to verify the IP settings.
If the test page does not show the correct settings, power cycle the printer and reprint the test page.

HTH

GeeTee,

Last night I came across an old Mac forum query where a user was having a very similar problem, trying to get his Laserjet 4MP printer networked under Snow Leopard. He'd almost given up but managed to get a 'friend-of-a-friend' to help who was a networking guru. They still had problems but in the end they managed it by doing exactly what you've now suggested - entering a suitable IP address manually in the printer and then setting up the printer driver on the computer, ensuring that the appropriate output port was chosen. He said that there was, within the MIO menu on the printer, a sub-menu called CFG TCP/IP, where it was possible to configure the various IPs to suit the router in use (though I guess the router itself can be given a new IP address in one of the other acceptable ranges, if need be). I'll now have a go at finding that menu on mine.

Among the Byte fields apparently, there was one called LG Byte and I can't, for the life of me, think what LG stands for. The other Byte fields are obvious. Apparently, LG Byte needs setting to all zeros.

My router is a wired Netgear DG834 which currently has the LAN address 192.168.0.1. So, if I program that address into the printer as the gateway address and give the printer the address 192.168.0.10, say, I reckon it should work. Not sure as to whether the router will need configuring for this, though. At the moment, the router uses DHCP to assign addresses. You reckon that I don't need to turn DHCP off in the router, eh?

Syslog server IP address (four bytes). This is usually seen on the front control panel as LG BYTE

From http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Doc...

Edited by deleted (Mon 21-Mar-11 12:36:02)

Yeh, I reckon that's it, path6336! I'll give it a go later today. Busy with something else at moment.

And you've indicated what LG Byte stands for. I don't, however, know which values to set for LG Byte. Leave at all zeros?

It's the address of your Syslog Server if you have one. If not, 0.0.0.0

The Syslog Server being ....... ?

A program that analyses Syslogs. Here's one http://www.kiwisyslog.com/kiwi-syslog-server-overview/

I would guess (and it's a long time since I've used Jetdirect in the older HP's) that the only ones to alter would be the IP address, the SubnetMask (though this could be already set sensibly by default) and the GateWay (usually the router's address).
For the others I would expect the defaults to be 0.0.0.0

HTH

Success!!!!! It's working!

Manually inserting the IPs into the printer was a bit fiddly but not that bad, really. Had to watch out for two slightly-different sub-menus, one called "TCP/IP", at which you arrive first, and the other called "CFG TCP=YES/NO". Unless you're aware that both exist, you can select the wrong one and then wonder why you're not seeing a whole raft of additional menus.

When I went back into the printer's properties in WinXP, I'd already had the port set up to a Standard TCP/IP Port with this printer on it, from the previous unsuccessful attempts. Apart from entering the printer's IP address into the port's dialog, I therefore left it "as is". However, the resulting nomenclature in the Print dialog itself isn't brilliant now, as it's:

Type: HP Laserjet 4/4M Plus PS600
Where: HPLaserjet4MPLusPS600

So, in order to perhaps be able to make this better (for example, "Where" would be better as "192.168.0.10" or "Network"), will it be okay for me to delete the current Standard TCP/IP Port in the Properties dialog and then add a fresh one and reconfigure it?

Might be a case of "if it isn't broke, don't fix it"!

If it ain't broke, I'll break it
If it is broke, I'll break it some more

In reply to a post by meditator:

So, in order to perhaps be able to make this better (for example, "Where" would be better as "192.168.0.10" or "Network"), will it be okay for me to delete the current Standard TCP/IP Port in the Properties dialog and then add a fresh one and reconfigure it?

That's what I would do - you've done the hard bit, getting the printer configured..

Bear in mind you can also change the name of the *Printer* to better suit what you need.

I deleted the Port setting and invoked a fresh "Add Standard TCP/IP Printer Port" wizard. This time, I filled in the printer's IP address rather than its name and, underneath, changed the Port Name to "Network". I then changed nothing in Configure Port, back in the main Properties dialog. As a result, I now see some better namings for "Type" and "Where" when printing.

MAY I SAY A VERY BIG THANKYOU TO ALL OF YOU, for helping me get the appropriate addresses into the printer and for generally configuring it for the networked situation.

I'll be getting a Mac laptop shortly - a completely new venture for me, as hitherto I've been solely a Windows man - and so I hope that configuring the Mac for printing via this network will be as easy to do as in WinXP.

Glad you got it sorted in the end.

Mac's support LPR printing over IP so shouldn't be hard to accomplish now the printer is set up.

Just as an afterthought: I've noticed on the testpage printout I got from the printer that CFG NETWORK = NO. And yet I had set this to YES (and definitely pressing Enter after). Does anyone else get this? Or is it that, when you set it to YES, it stays in that state only for the current configuring session and then automatically flips back to NO?

It always says no to begin with. Setting to yes unlocks the submenus so you can set up IP, etc. Don't worry about it, as long as the test page shows the network details you set up, it'll be fine.

Thanks for that reassurance, shtu.